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D&Q, Go! Comi, Tokyopop Schedule Titles

The manga publishers Drawn and Quarterly, Go! Comi, and Tokyopop announced their release plans for some previously revealed titles at BookExpo America in Los Angeles this past weekend. Drawn and Quarterly, the Montreal-based publisher of international independent comics, has confirmed its plans to publish A Drifting Life, the manga autobiography of Japanese alternative comics pioneer Yoshihiro Tatsumi, in 2009. Tatsumi was born in Osaka in 1935, and became a protege of "god of manga" Osamu Tezuka. In the mid-1950s, however, he moved away from Tezuka's influence and originated what became known as the "gekiga" ("dramatic pictures", as opposed to "manga") style of Japanese comics, which generally deals with everyday life. He began working on his massive autobiography, which is set to run to over 800 pages, in the late 1990s.

To date, Drawn and Quarterly has published two collections of Tatsumi's short stories, Abandon the Old in Tokyo and The Push Man and Other Stories. The first of these was nominated for a 2007 Eisner Award and in the same year, shared a Harvey in the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category. The third collection, Good-Bye, is due out in July.

North America's Go! Comi said that its anticipated English release of Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara's 07-Ghost gothic fantasy manga has been pushed forward. Instead of launching in January 2009, the title's first volume should ship by the end of this year. The story centers on an imperial military academy student who discovers that he has an object that allows a god to possess his body. He gets caught in the larger struggle between Verloren, the God of Death, and the “beings of light” sent by Heaven to oppose him: the Seven Ghosts.

Tokyopop formally announced Otsu-ichi's Goth murder suspense novel for an October release and Kendi Oiwa's one-volume manga adaptation (September) after revealing these licenses in March. The story follows a high school boy and girl who are obsessed with death as they try to solve a series of murders. Tokyopop also formally announced this month's Bad Kitty: Catnipped graphic novel from writer Michelle Jaffe (Bad Girl, Loverboy) and artist Lince, as well as Dan Jolley and Don Hudson's first volume of a new graphic novel trilogy based on Erin Hunter's bestselling Warriors novels in September.

Travel back in time (and maybe have your gender swapped) to seven different periods of Japanese history, all from the comfort of your couch.― The history of Japanese civilization is expansive, predating the Common Era by 10,000 years (the Jomon period). There's much more ground to cover compared to what kids get in U.S. history classes in high school, which rarely cover anything before the Boston T...

Junji Ito's death-stench horror gets the deluxe treatment with a new hardcover omnibus, but the subject matter might not work for everyone.― Junji Ito is inarguably one of the masters of horror manga, utilizing both horror (physical revulsion) and terror (psychological reaction) to create gut-churning tales of the world gone mad. To a degree, he carries this out in his two-volume series Gyo from 200...

Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam O'Brien returns to the podcast after a 5-year hiatus to discuss his roles in Fate/Zero and Sailor Moon, along with the landscape for anime voice acting now and what it's like to be Gollum.― ANNCast Episode 234: Podcastoes O'Brien Get the Flash Player to see this player. Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam ...

If you went to an anime convention this summer or have used the internet lately, you may notice anime fans seem to have fallen in love with Steven Universe. Why? Because the show loves them right back.― If you've been to an anime convention in the past year, you've probably seen colorful, gem-studded cosplay like this filling the hallways. Photo credit links: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom...

If you've got questions for the director of the high-flying fantasy series The Pilot's Love Song, we've potentially got answers for you!― We've been given the opportunity to interview The Pilot's Love Song director Toshimasa Suzuki, and we need your help! NISA, who will be releasing the fantasy action drama The Pilot's Love Song on bluray September 22nd, asked for fan questions for Mr. Suzuki, whos...

Bee-Train's 2001 girls-with-guns classic returns on Blu-Ray, and holds up surprisingly well, despite some mediocre animation.― Not all older series deserve the Blu-Ray treatment. For some it is because the show just isn't as iconic as people might like to think, while for others it's because the quality was never BD worthy in the first place. Noir, fortunately, does hold up well enough that its tran...

Egypt Arc is JoJo in peak condition, as memorable and engaging an adventure as you could hope for. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is back.― When we last left our heroes, they'd just arrived on the shores of Egypt, escaping the literal jaws of defeat in order to finally save Jotaro's mother. The journey there had been a lengthy and sometimes inconsistent one, with their various adventures indeed being plen...

The creator of the hit manga, recently adapted into a popular anime series, talks about her inspirations, how she got her start, and what it's like to watch your manga become a TV show.― As you might guess from the story, the main character of the story is a high school roughneck named Ryu Yamada. Yamada meets cute, quiet, and studious Urara Shiraishi, who is his complete opposite in almost every wa...